martha raddatz in washington. >> only a few select folks really know the full story. like any juicy story, only the select few really know. >> like a cool cucumber, did you see that? >>> we'll be right back, everybody. stay with us. >>> america is the land of plenty, but there's plenty of waste. the average family throws out about $190 of food every month. >> sometimes even when you think you're being frugal, you could be making costly mistakes. here's abc's amy robach. >> reporter: meet rebecca dickenson, a stay at home mom feeding a family of four. she makes breakfast, packs school lunches and cooks dinner for her two kids and husband, jeff. what would you say your weekly food bill is? >> $300, probably. >> reporter: so about $1,200 a month? >> yeah. >> reporter: how much of that monthly bill goes to waste? to find out, we set up a real money experiment, following the dickinson's for an entire week, setting up cameras. so we brought in marcus samuelsson for a little kitchen confidential. we watched what our cameras caught on tape and saw leftovers, unused spinach an